I think you're right that the law preserved the original culture indeed, not that it created one. I must confess that even as a moderate hobbyist, I don't know more than a couple of german authors.

I fear long form reading is dying anyway. I wonder how many Amazon kindles are actually used, or how many purchased books are actually consumed.

It's a fair fear, but I'd guess my consumption rate for books slightly exceeds my former consumption rate for paper books. I don't always have my Kindle on me, but I almost always have my phone on me, which makes dipping into a book via the Kindle app easy as my digital distraction of choice.

(Though of course there are competing distractions, like HN and social media.)

I am constantly glued to my kindle. I LOVE the idea of being to have almost any title I want instantly. The kindle basically changed my life since I moved to an area without a local bookstore. I read all. the. time. And I'm not an outlier. Not everyone has amazing bookstores near them.

And this is the strong argument for purchasing online. When I lived in Boston it was fun to spend a few hours on the weekend perusing book stores. When I moved to a less urban place I had only large bookstores in suburban strip mall hell to choose from. My dislike for driving kept me from going to them.

Now, with a Nook, I love the ability to finish a book at night, realize I want to read longer, and purchase another one immediately. I don't have to plan ahead. There are a lot of upsides to purchasing them online. But, I do miss the culture and community of small bookstores.

I have 2 kindles and have yet to read a book on them. (One is a digital remote, the other in a drawer somewhere) I strongly prefer paper, and settle for my phone or pc otherwise. Toting a kindle is as big a pain as a book, and much more fragile. Unless I needed a refrence of hundreds, whats the point? I seldom if ever read 2 books at once. Books don't need charging, or a 3rd party. Its a solution in search of a problem to me.

> Toting a kindle is as big a pain as a book

A kindle is 0.36" (9.1mm) thick. It has the dimensions of a tiny 100-page book I have right here on my bookshelf. Fair enough if you only read books of that size, but even Harry Potter gets massive.

It's also much less fragile than a book. It seems indestructible. Meanwhile my backpack alone turns out to be a book-cover destroyer before we even get into lending books out.

I think most people here would agree that books are bulky and fragile, so it's weird to hear someone suggest that books have these advantages over an e-reader.

One killer feature for me is that e-readers have a backlight so I can read anywhere. E-ink lets me read in the sun. The backlight lets me read without an external source of light. It's a massive convenience. And the battery charge lasts weeks.

It's fair enough if you don't think e-readers are worthwhile to you, but it's in your best interest to figure out why it's not "a solution in search of a problem" for the people who buy them. A better angle is just to ask people why they like something and they'll happily illuminate the mystery.

I seldom use my Kindle anymore but I bought Infinite Jest a few weeks ago and immediately regretted not having dusted my old Kindle and bought the digital version instead. These large books are cumbersome to handle and carry around.

For shorter books I agree that paper is superior, I don't have to worry about damage, battery level or theft, I can easily borrow and lend them (I think you can do that with Kindle nowadays but it can't be as convenient as lending a physical object).

Part of the joke of Infinite Jest is the physical size of the thing. You'll realise if you ever manage to get more than halfway through. It's so much more than just a story...

During holidays, I typically read a book every 3/4 days, so a 2 week break means 4-5 books read, and having a kindle-like device is really helpful for me ^^